Faster than Lightning
by TheWhittiePhantom
Summary: When what seems like a typical murder quickly reveals itself to be a side effect of something much more sinister, Barry will be pushed to his limits to stop an unusual metahuman before he kills again. Floating liquids, unexpected team-ups, and ritualistic killings? It must be a tuesday...
1. Chapter 1

_**Chapter One**_

Nodding his head in thanks, Barry paid for the _pain au chocolat_ and walked out into the narrow French road, humming to himself as he devoured the treat. While his high metabolism could be a pain in the butt sometimes when it came to things like the amount of food he was forced to consume, the deal was sweetened - no pun intended - if he got to eat his heart out in Paris. After a quick promise to Joe to get him something when Barry had mumbled his breakfast plans, he had sped off to grab breakfast from Paris. For a place famous for its pastries, it was kind of a shock that Parisians didn't make donuts. After mentally calculating how much he could carry, Barry spun into yet another shop and purchased more croissants than was strictly necessary, figuring he could supplement them with fruit and cheese from Joe's fridge.

As he was trying to maneuver his way into an alley dark enough to give him a running start in the general direction of the Atlantic Ocean without being seen by any passersby, his phone gave a little ring. Shifting the warm rolls to his left arm, he fished his phone out of his pocket and pressed it to his ear.

"Hello?"

It was Joe. "You still in Paris picking up breakfast?"

Barry nodded even though Joe couldn't see him. "Yep, about to head back. I should be there in a few minutes."

"We have a crime scene that the captain wants you at ASAP. Some Central City University kid was found murdered - burn marks found everywhere around the body and the dispatcher said that the guy who found the body said it looked like a whack job did the killing. No idea what he meant by that, but it doesn't sound good. Singh wants everyone in on this case and the culprits found and made an example of."

With a murmur of assent, Barry hung up and quickly stopped by another small cafe for a _noisette,_ figuring he would need it at this rate. Taking a small sip of the hot coffee before any of it had the chance to spill, he jogged until he was out of sight and then streaked toward Central City in a flash of light, struggling to keep his load in his arms and out of the ocean.

 _WHATDOYOUCALLAPOORLYDRESSEDPARTICLE_

After a quick stop at Joe's house to drop off the majority of the food he had bought, Barry finally made it to the crime scene, running the last stretch without the aid of his powers and making to the abandoned and half burned house just a few seconds before Singh lost it. Barry ducked his head away from his boss's glare and headed straight for the body in the middle of the floor, handing Joe one of the three small croissants he still carried along the way. The body was modestly hidden with a tarp, but even so, there were clear burn marks around the body scorched into the floorboards.

Even more noticeable, however, was how Barry's coffee tried to float up his nose as he got within a few feet of the body. Barry gawked at the liquid, quickly shoved the lid back on, then looked back down at the scorch marks.

"Can you explain that?" Captain Singh suddenly asked, seeming to have taken control of his disdain of Barry's tardiness so he could get some answers out of him.

Barry glanced over at him then back at his espresso. "It's not good..." he offered lamely, trying to think of how to explain the phenomenon. He decided to just play dumb for now and explain later. "...whatever it is."

"Brilliant observation Mr. Allen. That's the kind of deduction I pay you for," said Singh, rolling his eyes.

Barry carefully set down his coffee cup, avoiding the hot coffee that was coming through the hole in the lid and floating through in the air, then crouched near the body. He pulled up the tarp and found that the same burn marks that littered the ground were also covering the young victim. Cause of death could be the burns, but was probably something much more sinister. Barry didn't like the feeling this gave him... Not at all.

Joe was suddenly crouching next to him, making Barry jump a little. "What do you think?"

Barry took a breath. "I think I'm gonna throw up. I feel all...tingly."

The pair stood, Joe giving Barry an odd look. "Like 'oh gosh a dead body' gonna throw up or...?"

Barry just shook his head, unable to explain it. All he knew was that he had goosebumps and his stomach couldn't decide whether it was doing flips or not. "Nevermind. Not important. We're gonna need help on this one; it looks like a meta kill. The burns don't seem deliberate like a brand or heated weapon, but their patterns indicate that they were caused by some form of electricity. That-" he indicated the slowly falling coffee "-is clear evidence of some...freaky stuff. Other than that, I'm not sure of much else."

Joe nodded along as Barry spoke. "Okay then. Keep working with what you have here for now, then call in S.T.A.R. Labs. I'll talk to Singh."

Barry nodded once before turning his attention back to the victim, looking for the cause of death and any evidence that could lead him and the police to the killer.

 _ATACHYON_

"I feel like I need to go re-read my hiring contract because nowhere in my job description does it say, 'Break into the morgue to poke dead bodies,'" grumbled Cisco as he hefted a flashlight to help Caitlin see what she was doing.

Something resembling the barest hint of a smile graced Dr. Wells's lips. "I think the section that states that you will be pushed to explore the boundaries of science covers it."

"Plus, we aren't breaking in," added Barry, who was seated at the coroner's desk, studying the photographs and test results from the crime scene. "I let you in."

"With a key you swiped."

"I prefer the term "borrowed.'"

Dr. Wells ended the argument. "We need to take a look at the body ourselves. If this is a meta killing, then we might be the only ones who can identify it as such. Opinion, Caitlin?"

Caitlin pulled back the ribs from the cadaver, then frowned, and began prodding the heart tissue before replacing the layers of muscle and tissue. "Cause of death is definitely blunt force trauma. No doubt about it. But the scars and burns - most people would rule this as caused by a fire. However, as someone who has spent an extensive amount of time with a lightning victim-" she leveled a look at Barry "-I would say these were caused by lightning. But there is something unusual about it..."

"Like what?" inquired Barry after a moment's silence.

Caitlin hesitated. "If you get struck by lightning directly, it affects you differently than it would if you were holding on to something that got hit by it, or if you got hit and whatever you were holding also became a channel for the electricity. The burn marks are consistent with what you would call a side splash; the lightning was hitting other objects, too. But if that were the case, he would only have a single burn mark. The burns are more consistent with a direct hit."

Barry cocked his head in confusion. "But his internal injuries suggest a side splash. Most direct-hit victims end up with organ damage or bone splintering. Or superspeed, I guess."

Caitlin shrugged. "I really don't know."

Dr. Wells rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "So, we have to operate on the assumption that lightning, for some odd reason, was striking other objects all around him, as he was lying unconscious? "

Cisco raised an eyebrow. "Maybe we have a meta with the ability to control lightning?"

"Why not just hit the guy directly if he wanted to kill him?" Barry pondered aloud.

"Beats me," responded Cisco with a yawn.

"We will think more clearly with fresh minds," said Dr. Wells firmly. "Once we sneak out of the morgue, lets go home, shower, and get some rest. Agreed?"

The other murmured in agreement and began packing their stuff. As Barry got up and stretched, his phone went off, vibrating in his pocket. The noise startled all of them.

Barry quickly silenced the device by answering the incoming call. "Hello?"

"Am I interrupting anything?" Felicity answered on the other end.

Barry glanced over at Caitlyn who was still packing away the cadaver. "Not really, we've just finished up in the morgue," he said as-a-matter-of-factly. "What're you guys up to?"

"Lots of things... Ray's finally getting his suit to work, but other than that, I could use some good news from cheery Central City. Who's the meta this week?"

"Oh. Well, we're not sure of anything yet, but we do know that lightning is involved," Barry replied. "There's a bunch of weird burns on the body and probably tachyons somewhere because of the floating liquids." He raised his voice slightly as he brought that up, half directing the comment at the rest of his team. Cisco pointed at him with a snap.

"Is that Barry?" asked Oliver in the background.

"Cool. Yeah, it is," Felicity responded, directing the first comment at Barry and the second at Oliver. Barry held the door for Dr. Wells while Felicity gave Oliver a quick update.

"That sounds kinda familiar," Oliver said curiously.

"Wait, what'd he say?"

Oliver's voice got clearer; Barry assumed he had taken the phone from Felicity. "What kind of weird are the burns?"

"Caitlyn says that the burns are consistent with a direct hit from a lightning strike, but the lack of internal injuries says otherwise. Have you seen this somewhere before?" Barry explained.

"No, but I've heard about that somewhere," Oliver said. "I've been looking into the League of Assassins recently...long story why...it's an ancient group of assassins that act and fight like they live in the 12th century, and I heard whispers of strange deaths that occurred in countries close to Nanda Parbat, where the League has their headquarters. I was never sure if they were actually related to the League itself or not. Nobody ever took responsibility, and it's not exactly unheard of to have weird deaths in the area, but most of the locals said that the bodies were burned by lightning, but wouldn't speak of it anymore...something about it being bad luck to speak of such occurrences. Representatives sent by surrounded villages to bury the victims claimed that water started floating whenever it got close to the victims."

Barry nodded slowly. "Huh... Can you e-mail me any articles about that? That's too similar to be a coincidence."

"Sure."

Felicity took the phone back. "Weird."

Barry smirked. "Generally, yes."

"Well, I guess I'll let you get back to that," Felicity said. After exchanging farewells, Barry hung up the phone and turned to the rest of the team who were all looking at him with curiosity, silently prompting him for details.

"Oliver has some information about some similar deaths from a while ago, so hopefully that could give us something to go off of with our own investigation."

"It certainly could," Dr. Wells remarked.

"Did he happen to say if there were any suspects in the killings?" asked Cisco.

Barry shrugged. "Something about a group that call themselves the League of Assassins. But basically, we still don't know anything for certain. We know tachyons are involved, we now have something that looks like it could have ties to an international killer, _maybe_. We have a dead body that had to have been killed by a meta, but we have no idea what the meta's actual powers are."

Cisco planted his face in his hands. "I felt so much more productive before you said all that."

Dr. Wells whipped out his tablet. "We can calibrate the STAR Labs satellite to send an alert if it detects large quantities of tachyons concentrated in one location. That should give us a heads up just in case our serial killer decides to kill anyone else, and will hopefully alert us in time to save whoever the victim happens to be."

"In the meantime," Cisco practically announced, "I am going to eat Thai food and get some sleep because I don't know about you guys, but I am exhausted."

"Sounds like a plan."

* * *

A/N: _*passes out. Man this was hard to write. The villain is someone from the comics, so points if you guess it. Just for the record, the cadaver lab scene is from experience, which *long story* meant that it would eventually make it into the story. Collaborations are harder than I thought. At one point, Mumble had to tell me to go to bed and get some help. Hope you enjoy!_

 _-2whitie_

 **Yay for revamping old villains! :D I know nothing of this experience and am not so sure I want to know, so I'm just gonna assume it was for anatomy and not ask for details. YAY FOR COLLABORATION, our ideas coexist perfectly, speed force unicorns and Wells doing aggressive wheelies at midnight and all. And you seriously needed some sleep... When I of all people am 10,000% done with your fake spanish, it's time to seek psychiatric help. ;)**

 **-Mumble**

Cover Image was manipulated by Mumble; for the sake of obeying CC licenses, the two stock images used can be found at the following addresses:  
tinyurl dot com slash nw5cqbh  
tinyurl dot com slash nc5pt2u


	2. Chapter 2

_**Chapter Two**_

"How's it going?"

Barry glanced up from his paper-laden desk as Joe walked into his lab before resuming highlighting similarities in the scan while he answered the question. "There were some footprints at the scene that I'm trying to analyze the particulates of..."

Joe waited a moment for him to continue. "...But?"

Barry shrugged with a sigh of exasperation. "There are particulates from seemingly everywhere in these prints, and I mean _everywhere._ Sand, dust, dirt, traces of some rare plant that I can't even pronounce the name of, limestone...and that's just the very beginning of the list. There is no one place or even area in Central City with all of those traces, and I doubt there's any one place in the _world_ either. Somehow, this murderer or these murderers have been everywhere in a short enough time that all of those traces are still on their boots. That, plus the custom boot prints - which, by the way, seem perfect for gaining traction during high speed running - plus the tachyons at the scene, plus the lightning? My only guess is the Reverse Flash."

Joe shook his head before Barry could go any farther. "Actually, no. Not him. Not this time. I never thought I would say this, but I kind of wish it _was_ him. That way, we'd know what we were up against. This is another another speedster. That's actually what I came up here to tell you."

Joe now had Barry's undivided attention. The detective tipped his head towards the doorway. "We found some security footage from around the campus; you might wanna come and take a look. This isn't the Reverse Flash; it's something else."

Barry practically flew out if his chair and had to force himself not to run to wherever Joe was leading him. With barely concealed anxiousness, followed Joe out of his lab and downstairs. Where Joe was leading him was obvious from the sight of several other detectives and Captain Singh gathered around one of the computers in the office space.

"It doesn't make sense. Why would the Flash suddenly start killing people?" one of the detectives was saying with a scowl. "He's done nothing but good before."

"But that doesn't look like the Flash... He's a red blur, isn't he? This one looks black or yellow or something."

Captain Singh was shaking his head. "It's not the Flash. Just because whoever this is has the same powers doesn't mean it's the same guy. Committing crimes in a completely different outfit is a huge break from his typical M.O."

Barry hid the small smile that comment provoked. Sometimes he had to remind himself that the only version of him that Singh was openly appreciative of was the one that went around as a vigilante.

The Captain's office was tiny, and even with after craning his neck around all the other cops standing around, eyes glued to the screen even as they bickered, he could only see part of the screen. What he could see, he didn't like. All the footage had caught sight of was a black and gold blur; it was obviously a speedster.

Barry exchanged a worried glance with Joe. This was very clearly somebody new.

 _YEAHTHOSEPAJAMASARECOMPLETELYDIFFERENT_

In some ways, Barry mused as he paced back and forth on the roof of Central City's tallest skyscraper, tracking another speedster was easier that trying to find the average metahuman. They already knew how to find speedsters - just use the satellite to run scans for anything going faster than an airplane, which happened to be Barry's comfortable running pace when not going anywhere urgent. They already knew how to stop speedsters and also knew what their limits were. The most difficult steps were already taken care of.

The most painful step, however, was not. Getting another speedster to play nice was never fun. It always ended in bruises and possibly life-threatening injuries. He had considered taking an aspirin in anticipation of the inevitable fight, before remembering that it wouldn't do much good, seeing as it would have worn off by the time the first punch was thrown.

Squinting, he checked the clock on the city bank. He still had thirty minutes left in his lunch break before he had to be back in the lab. Heaving a bored sigh, he raised his hand to his ear.

"Got anything for me?"

"Dude, if anything comes up, you will be the first to know," said Cisco, sounding just as bored. "When we finally get these guys, I want to take a look at their inferior suit design and lecture them. My suit is way cooler."

"I thought we decided that it could be called our suit," Barry pointed out.

Cisco's "whatever" gesture was almost audible over the comm system.

Suddenly, a burst of lightning cackled at the base of the skyscraper.

"Cisco…?" Barry warned warily.

"Did you just run?"

"Nope. I think we just found ourselves a speedster."

Tuning out Cisco's calls for Caitlyn and Dr. Wells to get over to the monitors ASAP, Barry focused on the runner. He was dressed exactly like the killer from earlier, same hood, same boots, same everything. As soon as he (or she; he couldn't tell from this distance) saw Barry streaking down the skyscraper directly at him, he took off.

Barry's feet barely touched the ground he was moving so fast. He pumped his legs as fast as they could go down the busy street, following the back and yellow blur. Left turn, right turn, right, left, right - the other speedster wove in and out of the cars. Barry stayed towards the middle of the road, trying to avoid cars instead of moving around them and throwing himself into the air when they couldn't be run around. Eventually, the lead started to shorten, and Barry was in within grabbing distance.

A few seconds later, he saw his chance. With a sudden, almost vicious movement, Barry reached out and ripped the runner's hood sideways toward the dead end alley on the left. With a flying tumble, they both landed in a heap surrounded by high grey walls and piles of rotting newspapers.

Barry was the first to recover. He rolled over, sprang up to his feet, and then slammed one foot into the recovering speedster's stomach. Thoroughly taking advantage of his position, he slammed the other speedster into one of the walls at super speed before ducking a fist that was thrown his way by his recovering opponent. Repeating the move that Oliver had used against him when Bivolo had gotten into his head, he caught the fist and yanked it forward, dragging the entire body with it. Once his opponent was off balance, he clenched both of his hands together and swung at the stumbling legs, effectively swiping his combatant's leg out from underneath her. Unfortunately, the runner was now positioned towards the exit of the alley and, after a quick recovery, ran off, leaving nothing left to fight but air.

Cursing in his head, Barry ran after him, desperately trying to regain his advantage. As they both reached the city limits, the figure ahead of him took a sharp left into a wheat field, probably to use as cover.

Which is exactly why Barry didn't notice all the other speedsters waiting for him until it was too late.

 _SHUTUPHOODSARETRIEDANDTRUE_

To any innocent onlooker, it would have looked like a fight from Comic-Con taken to the next level.

A group of people dressed in sleek black bodysuits with yellow hoods and boots whose looks indicated they meant business. On closer inspection, every single member of the strange group was also armed - some with daggers, others with long swords pressed tight against their bodies. There was no question over who the leader was, though. The others deferred to him with slightly bowed heads and he was clearly the tallest and the strongest. His dark blue eyes burned with intensity beneath his hood and his muscles rippled with his every move.

The sore-thumb of the group was the slim young man dressed in scarlet, who was just coming to realize how badly he was outnumbered.

Barry felt his mouth go dry as he realized that he had run right into a trap. It made sense; after all, he was the only one fast enough to stop these murderers, so he needed to be taken out. And, just like an idiot, he hadn't hesitated to serve himself up on a silver platter.

Inside his ear, the STAR Labs team was silent. Either they had realized that there was nothing that they could do, or Barry was out of range of their communications. Either way, Barry was suddenly acutely aware that he was alone on this one.

He focussed on the leader, then managed to address him without his voice shaking uncontrollably. "What do you want with me?"

The leader paused, then lowered his hood. His face was clearly defined and weather beaten, with angry red scars arcing over his forehead and climbing up the sides of his cheekbones. He was staring at Barry with an almost hungry look, and after a long moment of dramatics that Barry honestly needed to help get his brain together, he spoke in a gravely voice normally reserved for Gollum impressions.

"I want to train you. Then, I want you to join me."

Before his brain could catch up with his actions, Barry was already shaking his head. "You're a murderer."

Without missing a beat, the leader already had a response ready. "You have a responsibility to speedsters. You have a permanent connection to the speed force." He savored the last words, drawing out the syllables as if merely saying the word would make it appear.

Barry went straight from terrified and mildly angry to confused. "Huh?"

The speaker looked just as confused as Barry was. "You mean you do not know?"

A blank look was all he got in return.

The man looked almost angry. "The speed force is what gives all speedsters their speed. It is their lifeline. The rest of us have to..refresh...our connection every once in a while. Are you meaning to tell me, that once you found a way to make your connection permanent, not only did you not share it with your brethren, but you aren't even aware of what you have in your possession?"

It took a minute for the speaker to pull himself together. "Look, _Flash_ ," he drew out the title mockingly, "You have want I want. An unending connection to the speed force. Something you can share with all of us." With that, he spread his had in a grand gesture towards the entire group of assembled psychopaths. "And in return, I give you instruction. Whatever your natural talent lends you, I have been connected to the speed force for much longer. I can teach you to master your speed, your surroundings, and eventually, time itself. Lighting will become a weapon that you can conjure up with your fingers. Universes would be at your fingertips."

"No." It was as simple as that.

Savitar seemed to take the answer in stride. "I'm not surprised. You are probably in the common stage of thinking you can handle all of this power on your own. This is normal." His voice turned threatening. "But you cannot. I will get your speed. You can either help yourself while I do it, or not. Your choice." With a careless flick of his fingers, he dismissed Barry and disappeared in a crackle of lightning before Barry could formulate a smart aleck remark. The others followed without a word.

Except for one. The one that had led him on the chase to this field stayed and let her hood fall to her shoulders. Her long chocolate hair spilled out, revealing piercing green eyes and the kind of looks that got women featured in magazines. However, the obvious arrogance in her stance and sadism present in her features ruined any kind of attractiveness she might have had in Barry's eyes.

"I dearly hope that you refuse a little longer. It would be much more fun for me if I was assigned to help convince you." With that, she tapped the hilt of the dagger strapped to her leg meaningfully, then ran off.

Barry stared around him at where the speedsters had previously stood, his thoughts still whirling. He swallowed hard before running back towards the heart of the city, his fingers at his earpiece. "Guys, this just got way more complicated..."

 _ITSJUSTAJUMPTOTHELEFTANDTHENASTEPTOTHERIGHT_

 _About 70 years ago..._

The worst thing about a plane crashing was the twenty seconds of falling. Because within those twenty seconds, you knew you were dead, and there was nothing you or anyone else could do about it. The plane had been pushed to its limits. No pilot should ever be flying that fast, but he loved the rush, the feel of wind just barely rocking the wings as it wrapped around them in the form of lift and quickly defied resistance. Then the lights started going crazy, the dashboard looked like it was having a heart attack. The next second, a wing was gone. Then the other. The only thing left to do was fall.

Next came the lightning. Faster that the eye could see, the bolt killed the already doomed plane, sending pieces spiraling out into the atmosphere and frying the pilot inside.

Finally, nothing... Absolutely nothing.

The pilot stirred. He was cold - no, _freezing_ \- and out in the middle of nowhere. No name, no nothing. After an hour of trying to force his limbs to cooperate and move, loose phrases and pictures started floating to the surface of his cloudy mind.

Cold War. Pilots were needed. A beautiful, wonderful place. Running. A speed force. Lightning. The Russians. Something called communism. The Iron wall. Berlin. A speed force...what a wonderful thing. What a wonderful place.

When he finally could move, he was fast. Faster than any human. Faster than anything before or since. Lightning was no longer to be feared...it was his plaything, his key. Locate the source of the lightning, and run after it. He may no longer live in the speed force like he had after the crash from the air; he had run out of it somehow. It left him as quickly and mysteriously as it had come to him. It had only taken a millisecond... But he could get back to the speed force, he knew it. He just needed more speed.

It chose him. The speed force loved him. As long as he used the last dregs of his speed to get struck by lightning every time he felt himself getting slower, he could stay connected. Why rejoin the rest of the world? They would want to control the speed force. It was his. The mortals could have their cold war to themselves. It was none of his business.

After months, he finally picked a name. Savitar. It fit him perfectly. His name literally stood for speed and power.

Savitar was perfect.

He was the only one who could access the speed force. And the speed force loved only him.

* * *

 _A/N: Heh. Gone for a while, then back with a filler chapter. Vacation got in the way. Having two jobs isn't helping either. So pumped to write further, because it's all the fun stuff after this. All in the Family will also get updated. We...we have a lot of writing coming up. As long as I keep doing this, the longer I can push off summer homework._

 _-2whitie_

 **Oh gosh, I'm so glad I'm not technically doing AP next year... No summer HW for me this year, praise the lord! :D And fun times are certainly on the way; I can't wait. *evil laugh* So yeah, there shouldn't be an insanely long wait for the next chapter since we're both in the same country now. STAY TUNED, I'M RUNNING OUT OF STUFF TO SAY! ;D**

 **-Mumble**


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